Tarzan has been swinging on his own vine for a long, long time. When Edgar Rice Burroughs launched Tarzan of the Apes in 1914, the guy was an avatar of British imperialism with racist impulses. Since then he’s been all over the jungle: a swimming champ, a body builder and a soft-core stud. It took the Walt Disney company’s 1999 animated feature Tarzan to emphasize our hero’s identity in his adopted simian family. After Phil Collins’ score won an Oscar, Chinese-American playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly, Chinglish) agreed to write the book for the 2006 Broadway musical, including more music from Collins. The Redhouse Arts Centerproduction (running through Saturday, Aug. 2), with spirited direction from Stephen Svoboda, marks the show’s first appearance in these parts.
Disney-to-Broadway projects tend to favor large choruses that bring alive hosts of animated figures, often creatures. The show’s 13-player ensemble (with an average age of 12) goes through many costume changes, starting out as the waves that shipwreck a young English couple off the African coast. Most of the time they appear to be the larger gorilla family, funkily costumed by Katharine Tarkulich, featuring crash helmets with bristly hair. The kids are never at rest, often crouched in monkey-see gymnastic dance routines arranged by choreographer Brandon Ellis. He doubles as the sinewy Leopard, who kills the English couple and causes other mischief.
